PC nomination candidate drops out, claims official asked about her family status

The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are investigating after a female nomination candidate alleged she was asked how a potential campaign would affect her family during an interview with the riding’s nomination committee in December.

Maddie Di Muccio, the CEO of Society for Quality Education, withdrew from the Newmarket-Aurora nomination race three weeks ago. The nomination interview left her feeling “unwelcome” because she’s a woman, she said.

Di Muccio said she informed PC Leader Patrick Brown of her concerns when she withdrew, but she only learned that the party was investigating this week.

In a statement, party president Rick Dykstra said the PCs take her allegations “very seriously.”

“As President, I have launched an immediate investigation and, if necessary, will take swift corrective action. The Ontario PC Party and Leader Patrick Brown are committed to inclusiveness and equality and denounce any form of sexism. We have a proud tradition of mothers serving as exemplary MPPs,” he said.

Di Muccio said she recorded the nomination interview; she played a portion of the recording over the phone for iPolitics on Thursday.

In the recording, someone Di Muccio identified as a member of the nomination committee can be heard asking her how long she’s been married and how old her kids are.

The committee member then reminds Di Muccio there’s a lot of pressure associated with campaigning.

“How do you see this affecting your family?” Di Muccio is asked.

“That’s just an outrageous question,” Di Muccio said Thursday.

“They would never ask a man that, I can guarantee you. And what does that have to do with me running? … It was just a sexist, demeaning question.”

During the nomination interview, Di Muccio responded to the question saying her family is strong and committed to doing what they believe in. She says her children are “well rounded” and coped well during her term as a Newmarket city councilor.

“I was extremely taken aback. It wasn’t until I went home and listened to it that I couldn’t believe she actually asked me a question like that and I was very nervous that I had to justify it. I really wish at the time that I had said you know how could you ask me that,” she said.

Di Muccio initially shared her concerns publicly in a column for Troy Media in which she criticizes Brown for allowing sexism to continue in the party and discusses the challenges women continue to face in Canada.

“Canadian Business magazine just published its list of the nation’s 100 highest-paid CEOs. All but two were men. In 2017, then, women still don’t get to Canada’s upper echelons. Apparently we’re just too busy explaining how we can balance motherhood and job responsibilities,” she wrote.

Di Muccio has been a vocal critic on gender issues and said she was blocked from running for the PC nomination in 2014 because she was critical of former leader Tim Hudak.

This is just the latest controversy to come out of the PC nomination process, despite Brown’s insistence that the party is running fair and open nominations. In Burlington, the riding’s membership chair Colin Pye filed an appeal, which the party subsequently dismissed, seeking to overturn the nomination of ex-MPP Jane McKenna by arguing her opponent Jane Michael was treated unfairly.

Derek Duval said he was disqualified from the race in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell because of his involvement in a video that was taken during a charity hockey game that shows someone eating poutine off a hockey stick. Party officials apparently mistook the poutine for a hamster.

In the Carleton nomination race, the PCs disqualified two candidates. Michael Nowak, a farmer and mechanical engineer, was disqualified after he made racist comments about current candidate Goldie Ghamari. Jay Tysick, a former senior aide to Ottawa City Councillor Rick Chiarelli and now a managing partner of Faraday Partners, also was disqualified from the race, but was not provided with a reason.

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